He was born September 30, 1928 to Dr. Harry and Arbhur (Allen) Stone in Lakeview, Oregon. By 1935 the family moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon, where he attended elementary school and graduated from Klamath Union High School in 1946. During his high school years he was a member of Tri-Sci, a branch of the National Science Clubs of America, and the school Honor Society. In the spring of his sophomore year, while the “men” where away at war, he trained with the Klamath Forest Protective Association and fought forest fires that summer. The following summer, at age 16, he worked his second fire season as Crew Chief.
In June of 1946 Solon enlisted in the US Navy where he became an Electronics Technician and served aboard the USS Mansfield (DD 728). He received the WWII Victory Medal and was honorably discharged in April of 1948.
After his time in the military he began studies at Oregon State College (University) where he graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.
With degree in hand, Solon accepted his first position of employment at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey. There he worked as part of the technical staff in military systems development and other areas. Notably, he was part of the engineering team that developed radar equipment for the Distant Early Warning (DEW line) system at the Arctic Circle, a system intended to protect North America from attack over the North Pole. In the summer of 1956 he left Bell Labs and accepted a position of Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at Oregon State College. In 1964 Solon became an Associate Professor, and in that same year also received the university’s Loyd Carter Award for “outstanding and inspirational teaching”. His career advanced again in 1966 when he became a full Professor and began to split his teaching and research duties with his new administrative functions as Assistant to the Dean of Engineering. In the early years of his career, during summer non-contract periods with the university, Solon also worked in his field as an engineer or consultant for Boeing Airplane Company, Pacific Power and Light Company, Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company, OSU Department of Oceanography, and CH2M. Solon retired as Associate Dean of the School of Engineering in 1989.
Solon enjoyed many things in his private life. He earned his private pilot’s license in 1968, some 3 decades after his father purchased his first airplane ride ever as a passenger aboard a Ford TriMotor. Later in life, when he no longer was flying the kind of airplane you sit in, he took after his brother and flew the ones you build and stand on the ground to fly. Reading about history was an interest of his, and going to some of those places was how he spent a portion of his last several decades. To that end he and Anita traveled and learned about the world, taking no less than 23 separate trips to destinations including, many of the countries of Europe, Russia, North Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. His Last trip was to the beaches of Normandy in 2015.
Solon was proceeded in death by his parents, his wife of 43 years, Anita, his sister Janice and brother John (Beverly), and granddaughter Sarah. He is survived by his sister Mary Davidson (Alan, passed 2016), children Glen Stone (Janet) of Bend, Oregon, Deborah Blake (John) of Aiken, South Carolina, L Brian Stone of Corvallis, Oregon, David Tweedy of Seattle, Washington, and Sheila Landis (Steve) of Beaverton, Oregon; his grandchildren Heidi, Kristopher, Alisa, Joshua, Emily, Grant, Haley, Marissa, and Erika; and 6 great grandchildren.
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